Excitement with South Africa

South Africa has been much in the news lately. With elections in India the much-awaited second season of the Indian Premier League in cricket seemed in jeopardy. But then the management dramatically changed location and South Africa played host to an Indian domestic tournament. [Surprise, surprise, last year’s winners, Rajasthan Royals couldn’t make it to the knockout stage. Instead, wooden spoon holders Deccan Chargers won the tournament!]

In Pittsburgh where we are now, people are intellectually inclined. Here authors, actors, musicians, and politicians present themselves to the populace and many turn up to hear them speak, as in Carnegie-Mellon hall or in Heinz hall.

Sometimes the entry is free. At other times people get in on their seasonal tickets or stand patiently in the queue to do so after the paid seats are taken.

Pittsburgh is said to be a small town. [Its zoo certainly is. We saw about six elephants there – compared with the sixty thousand that are found in the African game reserves.] Still, there are six universities that, we’re told, receive healthy funding from wealthy and powerful community groups.

We went to Carlow University to view a documentary on the South African judicial system. During Apartheid the regulation of laws was conducted entirely by white males. There were no women on the judiciary until perhaps the ‘nineties. The film-maker, Ruth Cowan, has travelled to that country to record change in the present social scenario.

The dismantling of the erstwhile regime gave hope to women, both black and white. They have struggled to establish themselves, and today there are many donning the robes of judicial magistrates. The women have had to battle to be heard. When we wear the robes, they say, there no longer is any question of differences of gender and race.

Despite the power and prestige of their positions, the women don’t forget their roots. They return to their villages and blend into the community just as before. In fact many help the local councils dispense justice. All this, they say, has been made possible with the new constitution written in the last decade that bases on the 7 pillars of equality, democracy, respect, responsibility, diversity and reconciliation.

We, along with all those who attended the screening including American women lawyers and judges were immensely impressed with the intensity and conviction of the women in the film.

The continent of Africa is very large, and its populated area exceeds that of USA. South Africa is one of its 35 countries, and economically it is pretty advanced. It is also perhaps the only country in the world that has two Nobelists who resided on the same street!

African leaders including Nelson Mandela were incarcerated on Robbens Island, where those afflicted with leprosy were also banished. But there they formed the “University” whereby on the principle of each one, teach one, literacy was carried forward.

The African Safari is perhaps the best in the world. It rests on the big five – lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and buffalo. The city is westernized, but in the villages, as in many parts of the world, people live in thatched mud huts. A bachelor has no perimeters. As he marries and forms a family, he constructs a wall around his home.

But is the same attitude is really seeping into the fabric of society at large? Cities are not safe from robberies and car-jacking. 25-30% of the adults are afflicted with AIDS/HIV.

Perhaps the impact of change on people in South Africa is like the changing economy of India. You know it is there because the western world has noticed and raved about it. But among the general population of the country, the same sense is yet to arrive.

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Face from the past

In India, labour is cheap. Householders are able to hire domestic help and for many, these numbers are a status symbol. Women are beginning to have time on their hands. Some use it to enjoy the luxuries of affluence while others seek employment themselves to further the family economy.

Immigrant women and those in the mother country are thus faintly competitive with one another. One group is envied for the ‘luxury’ of cheap labour in the house. The other is envied for citizenship in the land of gadgets in plenty. To each, the grass on the other is far greener.

As a recent survey seems to show, despite emancipation, women today are not really as happy as they have expected to be.

Work is priority for the men in all cultures. Women have sought to be at par with men in the outside world. But they have been unable to shake the yoke of household responsibilities that still is solely theirs, even in plenty.

Women find it hard to balance home-life and work-life. Eventually the (immigrant) women feel forced to choose the home. It is a wrench for some mothers to give up their careers. The choice rankles, because they feel unsupported by traditions of the past, their men-folk and by their organizations to continue employment.

Still they sacrifice their own present for their children’s future. Hence there are comparatively few ‘latchkey’ kids in the immigrant community. If non-American born scholars are taking the honours at American institutions, it is because of, especially their mothers ensuring that the youth don’t become “delinquent”.
The success of the immigrant woman can be attributed to their support group, and the support is powerful. This is ‘sisterhood’ is uniquely with others in the minority community.

Among the immigrants, women step in to help one another in every possible way to ensure that the household runs smoothly and the children are adequately supervised. At parties, the invitees contribute with cooked dishes, sharing the kitchen burden between them.

I’m reminded of the elephant community where the newborn calf is surrounded by several mothers – its own as well as surrogates. In this circle of influence, the men usually remain on the fringes.

In Florida, we met with some members of the ‘sisterhood’. Esther is a pillar of strength for her friends in the circle. She herself is the mother of four, all of whom are now established in life. She has an ‘empty nest’ at home, but she fills it periodically with guests of her friends, and she looks after them as if they were her own.

But she is not constrained by the network of which she is such a prominent node. Esther is a ‘connector’. She is member of other circles too – like in a diverse group of women that gets together every week like a ‘kitty party’, not to gamble but to create little pieces of art, quilting and beading.

Quite by chance we discover a Kolkata connection - we went to the same school so many years ago. Time has made changes so we couldn’t recall each other’s faces but we remembered common friends, teachers and incidents that occurred then. And yes, she is still in touch with many of the characters I could remember! A face from the past sometimes brings great joy.

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